Re: Talked to about the heel counter issue

October 6, 2005

Is it too tight? Or is the tongue bunching up under neath the strap? I

mentioned before I have trimmed the tongues out of both pair of shoes

we have used because there was just too much material to lay across his foot

smoothly.

In the mean time you (duh) need to work on healing it yet not losing correction

and that of course is the constant challenge we face with these things. I'm

sorry, I'm really no help

s.

Re: Talked to about the heel counter issue

is in the s and has been for over a year now. We got him a new

pair in April and for some reason, he's got a small open sore where the middle

strap is... It's always been red there but it's never bothered him.. and last

night I noticed it's opened. He's never had any problems with the heels tho..

Any suggestions?

Thanks

&

-------------- Original message --------------

Well, I finally got a chance to call Iowa yesterday. I talked to

Jeanne during the day and sent her the pics that I had of Darbi's

holed PM's and her sores. I'd sent them to Todd a couple of weeks

back but hadn't heard back and I'm not sure why but was not

aware of this problem. Glad to hear now they have dsl at the new

office and the pic emails went through fine. They are still in the

process of building the new shop in town but and Todd are still

working at the old place (which happens to be the 's home)

till the new one is done. Funny, they have to go to town to go to

work now lol!

So called me back in the evening and we talked for quite a

while. He agrees with me about the heel counter and could see

exactly what I was talking about from the pics. I am thrilled that I

was able to convey all that I needed to with those pics and he's

absolutely in agreement about this issue. Poor man keeps apologizing

to me (as did Jeanne) agonizing about how he never wanted to cause

children to have pain and sores... he just wants to help

them. <sigh> I told him I wasn't upset at all and I knew they were

breaking ground on these larger shoes and this kind of thing runs

with the territory. In the end they'll have a perfect shoe designed

for older kids. He is very accepting to constructive criticism and

is pleased to hear from parents in this way. It just so happened

that my daughter seems to be the guinea pig for FAB improvements in

the past couple of years. Poor kid... But if her problems help them

improve the shoes so no one else has issues... it's worth it I

think. I doubt she'll be permanently damaged from having owies for a

few weeks.

So what the plan is now, is that he's going to send me a couple of

impression kits and I'm going to lay the back of her heel into it so

he can make a plaster cast and see exactly where the new heel counter

should be. If this works, some of you who have older children in

sizes 4 and up (maybe 3, but he and I were thinking 4, 5, and 6

should be considered at first - input from parents of babes in sizes

2 and 3 please pipe up if you think those sizes/ages should be

investigated too) may hear from him asking you to make impressions of

your child's heels so he can figure out where each size's heel

counter should be. I think he needs to look at more than Darbi's

feet to know where the happy medium is for the average foot. Or

perhaps he'll decide that in addition to the impressions he already

has us do normally that he'll just ask for the heel impression

too. That way he could really make these individually for each

child. But he is going to work on this issue and I hope to have new

shoes with a proper heel counter for Darbi soon to test out. Soon

would be great since she does have TWO broken pairs of shoes now.

We talked about the recent problems I've seen online with the 4 sets

of shoes that have split in the back (which include our new pair with

the rivets). I think it might be that he got a bubble in the mold

because on Darbi's shoes when I put the rubber back together I can

see that there's a little indent right where it split that looks like

a tiny air bubble. Maybe it was a piece of sand or something in the

mold when he poured them? I don't know if the other shoes that have

split have this bubble but ours do and I can see how that may make

them split right there. I'm pretty sure the others split because I

holed them though. In talking about this he mentioned that older

walkers are pretty hard on these shoes and he's working on ways to

decrease the pressure/force on the rubber for older children. The

insole may have to be thicker in big kids shoes so they don't split

like this, who knows. One idea he'd passed by Dr. Ponseti this week

was to make the sole in the front flexible so that when they crouch

down the shoe acts like a normal shoe and flexes at the toes. He

thinks this may take some of the pressure off the back of the shoes

because the only way they can flex now is at the ankles and heel

area. We also talked (again) about putting some rubbery stuff on the

soles so that these kids aren't slipping and sliding on hardwoods or

linoleum floors. I think the combination of the flexible sole and

something that will grip the smooth floors will have our children

walking unaided in no time!! If Dr. Ponseti doesn't disagree with

the flexible sole idea I think we may see some cool shoes come out

soon! It didn't sound like Dr. P. had shot that idea down so there's

hope there!

I told him I really liked the rivets, they are perfect for fitting

the straps exactly where each individual child needs them most. I

suggested that they break the straps free before shipping them out

because so far the two pairs I've seen like this were stiffly fixed

in one position till you break them free and swivel them a bit, some

parents may not notice that this can be done.

We also talked about Christee's current issue with the buckle digging

into Lilee's foot. He said there was one other child who had this

issue and his suggestion was for mole skin for them but he's

brainstorming if he can make the tongue longer on the very small

shoes so that it goes under both the middle and lower strap to

protect baby from this happening. I don't see it happening on the

larger shoes like Darbi has but maybe because the straps are so close

together on the tiny ones and their feet are still so puffy that they

need this modification. I'm hoping that when Christee gets there

that he will be able to go to Iowa City and meet with them before

Lilee is casted so he can see this for himself.

I think that's it... If I remember something else I'll post it. But

I think this is all good news and hopefully by the time most of you

who have little ones in these shoes are ready for the larger ones

he'll have the heel counter thing all figured out.

Contact info for MD Orthopaedics ( )

1-877- PONSETI

mdortho@...

I don't have their address right here sorry... but it's been posted

recently and you can always call the above number.

Kori

October 6, 2005